Playing tennis, I didn't tie in my self-worth into winning or losing matches.
Martina NavratilovaRead
I think we will have full marriage rights in Colorado. But in 1992, there was a very hateful Amendment 2 that basically made it legal for any institution to deny gays and lesbians access, whether it's hospitals or restaurants or employment. Anybody could fire you or not let you in a restaurant because you were gay.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote acknowledges the progress made in marriage rights while highlighting past discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community.
Martina Navratilova's quote reflects on the struggle for marriage equality and the unfortunate legacy of discrimination, specifically referencing Amendment 2, which allowed institutions in Colorado to refuse service to individuals based on their sexual orientation. It serves as a reminder of the challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ community and the importance of continued advocacy for equal rights.
Themes
MarriageRightsDiscriminationLgbtq+Advocacy
In practice
Example use cases
During a Pride event, one might say this quote to highlight the progress in LGBTQ+ rights.
More from Martina Navratilova
All quotes →I just wanted to play tennis. It wasn't a job. It was an ambition. I knew I could make money at it. I was 18 - old enough to think I could do it, young enough not to consider the consequences.
Martina NavratilovaRead
To those people doubting Serena Williams, writing her off - do not do that to a champion.
Martina NavratilovaRead
I can teach many sports, but obviously, tennis is the one. When you do other sports, you see things from different perspectives: different footwork drills, body positions, angles and geometry. All that stuff is helpful, and so when I do other sports, I can see things, because once you know one sport, then the other sport becomes more clear.
Martina NavratilovaRead
So many athletes are afraid to use their platform to do the right thing and speak what they feel, and that's very depressing. Sure, they are afraid of insulting people and losing money because of it, and everyone wants to make the maximum amount of money in their lifetime. But at the expense of who you are? I don't know. That just wasn't in my DNA.
Martina NavratilovaRead
I am just sorry my own mother had to live under that regime for most of her life. I was lucky. I got out and, 14 years later, Czechoslovakia became a free country. So I feel anger, even fury, at this bloody system that ruined so many people's lives for no reason whatsoever.
Martina NavratilovaRead
Similar quotes
Even jealousy is based on fantasies: a fantasy that someone else has what belongs to you.
Anna Deavere SmithRead
We spoke about our dreams and how we always felt safe in them, no matter how bad everthing else seemed. He told me it was one of the best days of his life and then he took out his gun. A .22 rifle. And he leaned forward and whispered, "Forgive me, Taylor Markham." Before I could ask how he knew my name and what I was to forgive him for he said, "Take care of my little girl." And then he told me to close my eyes. And I've been frightened to do just that ever since.
Melina MarchettaRead
As I got older, I realised that people saw me as other things - sometimes Korean, sometimes Japanese, sometimes just Asian. When my family moved to a more affluent white neighbourhood, I started to see myself as 'other', this amorphous category. I didn't even know what 'not other' was, but I knew I wasn't it; I wasn't what was normal.
Jenny ZhangRead
Is it not hard that even those who are with us should be against us - that a man's enemies, in some degree, should be those of the same household of faith? Yet so it is.
John WesleyRead
A lot of it was really, really fun, but at some point, things started getting weird. We didn't allow each other to breathe. We didn't really have a sense of ourselves individually. We were very insecure... We were really threatened by the thought of 'Oh my God, what if someone goes off and does something outside the band?'
Charlotte CaffeyRead
My mother always told me, 'Don't get married. Make your own life. You don't need a man.'
Sandra BullockRead